Telegram founder says Russia labeled him terrorist for resisting ‘mass surveillance, censorship’

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Thursday that Russia’s decision to add him to its terrorists list was in retaliation for his refusal to comply with “government demands for mass surveillance and censorship on the messaging platform.”

“Russia has recognized me as a ‘terrorist’ for refusing to comply with its demands for mass surveillance and censorship in Telegram,” Durov wrote on Telegram.

“Under Russian law, I am now prohibited from ‘disseminating information on the internet.’ Russian officials have apparently become confused about who can prohibit whom from using the internet,” he added.

Earlier Thursday, Russia’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, added Durov to its register of terrorists and extremists after authorities charged him with aiding terror activities and launched procedures to place him on an international wanted list.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has accused Telegram of failing to remove channels, chats and bots allegedly used by Ukrainian intelligence services and extremist organizations to coordinate attacks and other crimes inside Russia.